The Top of the Poppers Sing and Play Punk
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Title The Top of the Poppers sing and play punk Type Article URL https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/14980/ Dat e 2 0 1 9 Citation Bestley, Russ (2019) The Top of the Poppers sing and play punk. Punk & Post Punk, 8 (3). pp. 399-421. ISSN 2044 1 9 8 3 Cr e a to rs Bestley, Russ Usage Guidelines Please refer to usage guidelines at http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/policies.html or alternatively contact [email protected] . License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author The Top of the Poppers sing and play punk Russ Bestley, London College of Communication By the mid-1970s, the music industry had a long history of accommodating and recuperating teenage rebellion, and punk’s defiant message of radical change also offered new opportunities for commercial enterprise. A rush to sign new bands who could be (broadly) associated with punk, and the concomitant shift toward ‘new wave’ styles, led to a degree of UK chart success for a number of groups. The inclusion of punk and new wave songs on a series of low-budget compilations featuring cover versions of contemporary hits strikes a particularly discordant tone with punk’s self-styled image of a break with traditional music industry conventions. The albums released on the longstanding budget compilation series Top of the Pops between mid-1977 and early 1982 tell an interesting story about the cultural recuperation of punk, new wave and post-punk, and ask questions, perhaps, about the legitimacy of punk’s often mythologised ‘outsider status’. From their saccharine cover images, harking back to the pin-ups of the 1950s, to the awkwardly dated language of sleeve notes and the notion that the diversity of contemporary ‘pop’ is not tarnished by subcultural differences, these albums reflect a fascinating period in punk’s acceptance, maturity and, perhaps, reluctant commodification. Keywords Top of the Pops, new wave, pop, cover version, recuperation, authenticity The early punk movement positioned itself as an attempt to break away from music industry convention – a nihilistic, anarchistic and rebellious new start, more relevant to a disenfranchised youth who felt alienated by the overblown rock dinosaurs of the early 1970s. This narrative has dominated the popular imagination for more than four decades, perpetuated by punk musicians, fans, journalists and promoters: it should come as no surprise that a model of authenticity and radical insurgency would be embraced by self-styled rebels whose own sense of identity draws upon the same rhetoric. Despite numerous critical voices charting histories to the contrary (Dale 2016, Worley 2017), punk’s ‘Year Zero’ rhetoric still holds sway in the mainstream media: it does at least make for a good story and allows writers of a certain age the luxury of nostalgia. An accompanying narrative of teenage rebellion, independence and authenticity fits the punk myth like a leather glove, and many who benefit by association wouldn’t want to disrupt it for fear of losing status, authority or cultural capital. However, in practice, there are obviously many antecedents and parallels to what might be termed ‘punk’, and the subculture’s presumed radicalism – aesthetic, political or cultural – can be evaluated against other, perhaps more ‘mainstream’ rock and pop genres in order to gauge similarity or difference. To an extent, this has been done in relation to music (Dale 2012, 2016), countercultural history (Worley 2017, Binns 2019), cultural studies (Sabin 1999), fashion (Weiner 2018) and art and design (Bestley & Ogg 2012, Bestley & Burgess 2018). …there are no absolute and pure beginnings in popular music. […] ragtime, music hall and rock’n’roll did not come from nowhere and... it is folly to attempt to pick some genuine origin – the 1790s, say – for this area of music. Even in the more musically novel examples of punk such as the Slits, therefore, we find a wide variety of elements (instrumentation, song structure, four- in-the-bar metres and so forth) which have been unmistakeably passed down from rock and pop more generally. (Dale 2016: 71) The connection between punk and mainstream music industry practices relating to promotion, marketing and branding has seldom been analysed. This article sets out to explore one small, though fascinating, aspect of this relationship – the inclusion of punk and punk-related songs on the budget-priced Top of the Pops compilation album series sold in large high street retailers from the late 1960s onward. Top of the Pops – BBC television’s flagship weekly pop music programme1 – presented successful punk groups with something of a dilemma. The Clash publicly refused to appear on the show, while the Sex Pistols featured in a promotional film for their third single, ‘Pretty Vacant’, in July 1977 rather than in live – or mimed – performance.2 Attitudes toward the programme had softened somewhat since the previous year. Interviewed by Janet Street-Porter for London Weekend Television in November 1976, Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) had been scathing about the relevance of Top of the Pops to young audiences; Janet Street-Porter: “You’re just attacking Top of the Pops and the sort of bands that are on there. Do think they are relevant to the kids of sixteen or seventeen?” Johnny Rotten: “Of course they’re not. Relevant to their mums and dads, but that’s about all.”3 (Punk Rock, 1976). Other early UK punk and new wave groups did appear on the programme, though the greater impact of the scene on the charts was not felt until 1978-79. The first directly punk-related appearance was by the Jam, on 19th May 1977, with their debut single ‘In The City’ – although some proto-punk groups such as Eddie & the Hot Rods had made appearances the previous Autumn. The Stranglers appeared a week later, performing ‘Go Buddy Go’, and both groups made regular appearances over the following three years. Other early punk appearances on the show included the Saints (July 1977), the Adverts (August 1977), Generation X (September 1977), the Boomtown Rats (September 1977), Elvis Costello (November 1977), Tom Robinson Band (November 1977), the Banned (December 1977) and the Vibrators (March 1978). From late 1977, as punk and new wave made greater inroads into the charts, a number of UK groups made regular appearances on the show, including the Stranglers, Generation X, Buzzcocks, the Undertones, X Ray Spex, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Skids, the Damned, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, the Members, UK Subs and XTC. Meanwhile, the Boomtown Rats, the Jam and the Police established hugely successful careers between 1977 and 1979, dominating the charts by the end of the decade and moving away – in the eyes of fans and music critics – from ‘punk’ and ‘new wave’ definitions altogether. In parallel to the UK punk boom, Blondie led the way for US new wave and what was to become known as ‘powerpop’, almost seamlessly crossing over from punk to pop. The visibility of punk and new wave music – in the charts, in magazines, on radio and television – also brought it into the realm of established industry practices.4 1 Top of the Pops was broadcast weekly between 1st January 1964 and 30th July 2006. The show occupied a prime slot on the schedule every Thursday evening, and presented live and mimed performances by artists with songs in the Top 30 of the official UK singles chart. 2 The Sex Pistols, ‘Pretty Vacant’, Top Of The Pops 14th July 1977. Interestingly, during the spring of 1979, two later singles by the (then defunct) group, ‘Something Else’ and ‘Silly Thing’, were played on the programme with an accompanying performance by the resident dance troupe, Legs & Co. Perhaps even more ironically, on 21st August 1980 Legs & Co also performed a routine to a new single by the Clash, ‘Bankrobber’. 3 Rotten went on to criticize mainstream music fans, as well as the industry, describing them as “…complacent, apathetic old farts who walk up and down, do nothing and moan about everything. WatchTop of the Pops and send their boring little letters in toMelody Maker, week after week…”( Punk Rock, 1976). 4 It also opened up opportunities for other commercial enterprises to get in on the action, from clothing manufacturers to marketing and branding specialists keen to stay one step ahead of the youth market. Fig.01 Top of the Pops Volume 2, 1969, Hallmark Records. Design by Bill Graham. Fig.02 Top of the Pops Volume 15, 1971, Hallmark Records. Design by Bill Graham. One example was the low-budget Top of the Pops compilation album series, manufactured by Pickwick under the Hallmark Records label and featuring cover versions of chart hits of the day.5 While a few specialist punk compilation albums had enjoyed a measure of success during 1977, notably New Wave (Vertigo Records 1977), Streets (Beggars Banquet 1977) and the live albums The Roxy, London WC2 (Harvest 1977) and Live at the Vortex (NEMS 1977), the wider market for the various artists format was associated with collections of popular hit records – either dug up from the archives or reflecting new and current trends in popular music. Albums of contemporary hits were usually marketed to young music fans as a cheaper alternative to buying a large number of chart singles and for playing at parties and social events. Some featured collections of original recordings, but these were limited in scope by licensing issues and copyright – a problem that also pushed up the cost of production and resulting retail price to the consumer. Pickwick’s Top of the Pops series got around this problem by re-recording the songs with a group of anonymous session musicians, dubbed the Top of the Poppers, under the leadership of session musician Tony Rivers and producer Bruce Baxter.6 The Music For Pleasure label had pioneered this approach in the late 1960s, releasing collections of popular songs and show tunes including Rock’n’Roll Party, Country & Western Favourites and The Greatest Music Hall Ever Assembled!.